• Macintosh

Watch out for USB driver problems and kernel panics

Six months into using OS -X started having Kernel panics (Apple's blue secreen of death). Not running non-Apple programs, multi-tasking, or running peculiar non-standard hardware (Logitech tracball, HP printer/scanner). 5 trips to the repair shop - new hard drive, new RAM, new system board, upgrade to 10.2.8; 4 phone calls to Apple "Support." Kernel panics returned. Lots of web searches - found lots of boards where people have the same experience, and found the only permanent solution was downgrading to OS9 or upgrading to OS 10.3. "Support" denies it's poor USB software.

I love OS X, but be wary of the server version

my advice is to make sure you need it before you buy it, but if you know you need it, then buy it. How will you know? If you need it, you would already know that you do. If you don't know that you need server version, then you probably don't need it. Most day to day tasks are done by the normal version of the os in ways that are much simpler than the server tools. Now you do get a variety of nice things with the unlimited client, such as server managment systems, monitoring systems, etc., but if you are just doing a basic install without a complex networking or users/groups system, then you probably should try to do what you need to do with a 10.1 or 10.2 and see if you actually have to own the server. I would say the ideal application of a server install is for a medium to large lab install using netboot, where the actual cost of doing it via server will lower the TCO significantly.

OS X best ever